


Death of Lovers

by jcrycolr3wradc



Series: Gigolas week 2014 Whoop! [3]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: Blood, Gigolas Week, M/M, People are shot, This is the second time I've used character death tag in a week, Trigger for violence, World War Z AU, Zombie AU, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-02-23
Packaged: 2018-01-13 11:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1225390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jcrycolr3wradc/pseuds/jcrycolr3wradc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zombie AU. A biographer talks to Gimli about how he survived World War Z.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Death of Lovers

**Author's Note:**

> AN: World War Z is one of my favorite books ever written. (The movie was a terrible catastrophe, that we will not talk about here.) This idea has been simmering for a while in my head. Once again this is a sad fic. I guess I’ll write the smutty/fluffy ones later.

Glittering Caves, Colorado, USA

**[The nickname “Glittering Caves” is fitting for this walled underground city. As I walk through the streets with Gimli Durin I am impressed by the sturdy yet artistic design, that seems to work with the caves, using the natural rock, rather than chipping away at the ancient networks of caves. Mr. Durin explains proudly that he was a graduate of Cornell University, majoring in architecture and history. When I ask him what he minored in the smile turns sheepish and a ruddy blush lines his cheeks. French poetry, and environmentalism. An unusual combination I comment. He responded that everything he was taught helped him survive the war.]**

My family was all in the west or in the Appalachian mountains. My cousins still hold the White Mountains safe from zed. But I was still in the New York when the outbreaks began. During the great panic I managed to get my hands on a hiking axe and a fireman’s axe. My partner always joked I missed my calling in mining.

**He snorts, smiling at the memory.**

As if he looked any less ridiculous with that bow he carried around. Anyway, I had never been much of a hiker, I was usually inside studying. My cousins always teased me about it. Legolas had spent his life outside, it seemed. He was really the reason I survived the war. Some city kid trying to fight the hordes of the living dead with no idea of what was safe to eat or how to hunt animals, or walk silently when you don’t know what is out there. Legolas told me he’d smother me himself if I didn’t figure out how to stop snoring because it attracted zeds. I told him he wasn’t any better, singing in his sleep. We must have had that argument almost every night.

**From your reports, it sounds like it was just the two of you for years?**

Yeah, thats true. We drove each other crazy at first. Classist, stereotyping, racist bullshit. We came from completely different sides of the street, you know what I mean? I guess thats one thing the war brought an end to. ‘Death comes equally to us all, and makes us all equal when it comes’ John Donne. We got over it after we kept saving each others lives.

**He laughs.**

We kept track. For while anyway. As the months passed we realised we were just watching out for each other because we liked each other. That was a shock. We, well I, realized it in a small city called Dale in Maryland. We tried not to go through any large cities unless it was absolutely necessary because more people meant more zombies. Or at least that was our thinking. That day I’d destroyed a zed that surprised us when we looted a family grocery. It had been trapped under a shelf that tipped over on it. Legolas hadn’t even see the hand that shot out and grabbed his leg. We left after I pulled my axe out of it’s skull. I hadn’t even said “You owe me.”

This was our new normal. We had each others backs the entire way to Kansas.

**And?**

What do you mean by that?

**I gesture to the only framed item on his wall. It is a marriage certificate, signed and dated by a Gimli Durin and Legolas Greenleaf, from the city of Memphis Tennessee. It is stained and torn, and it has no notarization by a priest or government official.**

Yeah. We got married. Is that a problem?

**Of course not. But it seems like an odd thing to do in the middle of fighting a war.**

Look, we could have died anyday, and we figured that if we had to go we wanted the world to know that we loved each other, even in the middle of the apocalypse. I love him even now.

**He’s dead, correct or -**

Look what the fuck do you want to know? Why I came back alone? Where he is? If I was able to shoot him in the face after he was bitten in Wichita? Fucking ask me buddy and I’ll tell you!

**He continues on, getting louder.**

I had to tell his entire family what happened, and fuck, I might as well as I tell you too! He was the love of my life, and my best friend and I had to nail him in the temple after a fucking zed got him! It’s not like I don’t live with the guilt every goddamn day of my life!

**He’s yelling furiously when he suddenly becomes quiet. He covers his eyes and breathes through his nose. I quietly gather my notes and prepare to rise, feeling embarrassed, both with the emotions displayed on his face and with my own intrusive questions. He snaps at me.**

Sit down!

**I do.**

Look, it’s difficult, it’s been more than ten years and I still can’t talk about it. But I might as well try right? Not like it’s gonna do anything now.

We were in Witcha, it was late afternoon and we were trying to figure out a good place to sleep for the night. We finally picked a classic victorian house, that we think used to be a bed and breakfast. There weren’t any fresh tracks and we just wanted to sleep in a bed for the first time in a week.

We should have checked all the rooms.

We finished dinner, just beef jerky and canned peaches we taken from a store. It was a warm night and I figured I try my hand at getting lucky. Legolas never liked making love in cities or at night. I wanted to see if I could make him break his rule for once.

**He whispers**

I fucking wish everyday of my goddamn day that I hadn’t. I dont know if it would have changed anything, but damn I wished I hadn’t.

**He wipes his eyes roughly.**

Anyway, turns out yeah, he was willing to bend those rules. We were actually getting undressed and into the bed when we heard it. A moan, from right outside the unlock door.

Let me tell you, that is the most effective erection killer I have ever experienced.

We got dressed so fast I think we set a record and tried looking for other ways out. There was a window that we could break and escape from easily. But that one zed, it’s moaning, had already brought whatever friends it had in that neighborhood. And they were right outside. So we made a choice. We broke the window right as the one in the hall splinted the door and a hand crept in to claw at the air.

Legolas was gonna fire at whatever zed were close to me while I got outside, then I’d guard his back while he got down.

I trusted him completely. I jumped and a zed never touched me. I waited for him. I heard a scream and he more fell out of the window then jumped. I heard the crunch when he landed.

His left leg was completely bent out of shape and bleeding. He was biting on his hand trying not to scream and bring more zombies right at us.

I hauled him up and practically dragged him into a nearby mechanics garage. I shut the doors and locked everything down. Legolas was pale and shaking on the concrete. I made him cry when I had to straighten out his leg. I wont ever forget that.

I tried to set his leg, but he made me stop.

“Gimli, Gimli. Stop, it’s too late.” He said, pale and tears soaking his shirt.

“No it’s not. It’ll be fine, it’s not like they run.” I tried to joke, My voice was breaking, I remember that.

“No Gimli. It is.” He twisted around. I realized there was blood all down his back from a wound to his neck.

A bite wound.

“Oh god oh god oh god.” I remember freaking out when I saw that.

“Gimli, please calm down, I need you to calm down please.” He begged me, holding my hands while I shook my head frantically.

“Legolas no, no not this, please not this.”

“Listen to me please!” I realized there was moaning outside. We were making a lot of noise.

“Gimli, please. You need to kill me.” Legolas said. We were clutching each other desperately. We were both sobbing.

“No no, don’t ask me to.” I whispered.

“Please, please. I dont want to be a monster! Dont make me live like that.” He asked me, his voice so heartbreaking that I already knew I had no choice.

Our sobs slowed and we leaned against each other. I tried to memorize everything about him. The exact color of his hair, his smell, his smile and eyes.

He leaned against me. I talked to him. i told him everything I hadn’t ever thought to before.

That my favorite cartoon was bugs bunny, that I liked almond butter more than peanut butter, that I had never seen a movie twice in theaters. I told him everything I would never have time to now.

He was dead by midnight.

I kissed his temple and told him I loved him for the last time.

Then I buried my axe in his head.

I had to leave his body there, because there was no time bury it before the zeds came in.

I made my way to Denver in a daze. I hardly remember any of it. My next clear memory is finding my mother, father and sister. I think when I saw my mother for the first time after all those years I cried harder than she did. It took me months to talk about him. It was only after the war I could speak his name without my voice breaking.  

**Mr. Durin falls silent. His eyes are dry, but he is blinking furiously. He fiddles with the ring on his left hand, as he bids me goodbye. On my way out I ask my guide if we can make a detour. In a private alcove is the most famous part of the city.**

**A three foot copper statue of a young man with long hair and a bow in one hand. Above it is a plaque that reads:**

**“‘Our two hearts will be two immense torches**

**Which will reflect their double light**

**In our two souls, those twin mirrors’**

**Death of Lovers**

**\- Charles Baudelaire.**

**Designed by Gimli Durin, and dedicated to his husband of six months, Legolas Greenleaf.”**

 


End file.
